Escape
by XxCrimsonNovaxX
Summary: Not only Sasuke, but Sakura as well became orphaned by Itachi's hand. Powerful genin, compulsive avenging, and anti-social personas leave Kakashi puzzled as to how he got stuck with the pair. Growing up on Team 7 just became a LOT more complicated.Sas/Sak
1. Fate

Title: **Two Avengers are Better Than One**  
Category: Anime/Manga » Naruto  
Author: XxCrimsonNovaxX  
Language: English, Rating: Rated: T  
Genre: Drama/Romance  
Published: 06-09-09, Updated: 01-31-10  
Chapters: 4, Words: 8,508

**Chapter 1: Fate**

**EDIT 01-31-10: I WROTE A NEW CHAP. AND COMBINED OLD ONES. **

I wish Naruto was my creation…but he's not…:(

_That night….about five years ago_

Mr. and Mrs. Haruno were known for being against any and all violence. This wide array of a topic includes dog fighting, bullying, waiting for the doors to open at a major retail store the day after Thanksgiving, and above all, being a ninja...well, in this special case, a kunoichi. That was actually the purpose of the late night stroll the Harunos were taking. The mission: H_ow to get their 8 year old daughter to accept the fact that under no circumstances was she to get any further in this ninja business._ Of course, she could not see the fact that she could get killed or be taken prisoner and tortured for her information. No, all she gaped at was helping people and maybe being a little excited for being a part of something that was far bigger than her. They had tried everything, and failed. Finally, the parents have just come to accept that it was not their fault if she turned down the 'wrong' path. They absolutely knew that even if their plan did not work and she did turn down that road, it would not have anything to do with them.

Little did they know, the sole reason that Sakura would become one of the most powerful kunoichi that Konoha had ever seen actually had everything to do with them.

* * *

Itachi hated the smell of blood. Being a ninja, you would think that he would have gotten over it by now, but it still attacks his senses every time he is around it. The almost tangy iron smell made him sick. So obviously, as he watched the pools of blood around his aunt and uncle grow in size, tonight was going to be greatly disturbing to him.

'_Next house' _he grimaced. The thought of this and he was not even half way through.

Trying not to be seen he quickly ran from house to house killing anyone and anything. The only words that even ran through his mind was 'complete mission'.

He was making his rounds hastily, not wanting any outsiders to ruin his deception through the night. He had already told himself no matter what the council said that there was going to be a survivor tonight..but only one. If any other unfortunate people came by..._sorry._

* * *

Mr. and Mrs. Haruno had just finished the plan and had decided to turn around and go back home when Mr. Haruno stopped abruptly.

"Did you hear that?" Mr. Haruno turned to look at one of the huge entrance gates to the Uchiha district, the symbol of the powerful clan dominating most of it.

"No, what are you talking about?" Mrs. Haruno looked around nervously. She knew Konoha was safe from other villages, but not from their own actual scum.

"I thought I heard someone scream…in there." He pointed very lazily into the Uchiha compound. Everyone knew them and the crest. They were Konoha's police. He turned back to look at his wide eyed wife, her jade colored eyes sparkling from the full moon that night.

"Do you think we should go in there and see if anyone is hurt?" he asked.

"Honestly, no! They are the police. Who would we call, them?" She stopped and tilted her head to the right, looking behind her husband, "Oh! Look, let's just ask that young man if everything is alright. I think I see his—yes that is a Uchiha symbol. Ask him!"

'_This way_,' she thought, '_we don't have to get involved. He will take care of it.'_

"_okay." _Mr. Haruno quickly turned his attention to the young man briskly walking across the street completely unaware of them, or just ignoring them.

"You there! Yes, you!" Satisfied that he had gotten the young man's attention, he lowered his voice and continued.

"Is everything alright? I thought I heard a scream come from in there." The young man slowly turned his body towards them. Mrs. Haruno slowly started backing away.

'_Something's not right.'_

Mr. Haruno turned and gave a weird look to his wife, " They sure don't say much, do they?"

* * *

He just stared. Itachi could not believe the lack of luck these poor bystanders had. He had tried to spare them. He looked down and tried to act invisible, but no, the man had to make him look up. He just had to get his attention, only to ask about the screams he had created in the first place.

Maybe it was his fault, he could have ignored them. He could have spared them if he wanted to. But nonetheless, it was too late now. He had seen the pink hair, and they had seen his eyes. The woman turned to run. The only thought he had while he threw two perfectly placed kunai was '_Wrong place, Wrong time.'_

Mr. Haruno held his already dead wife in the thirty seconds he had left. With a tear running down his cheek, he thought about his little cherry blossom. In his last seconds, he decided that any path she wanted to take would be accepted by him.

* * *

Sakura was sobbing her head off in her favorite purple pillow when the knock at the door came. Twenty minutes before the only thoughts that were in her head was how she had nothing else to live for. Now all she could think about was how dumb it was for her parents to not take their keys with them. She rolled off the bed and in a very grumpy way thudding her way to and down the stair way, only to fling the door open.

"MOM! You guys can't remember to take your—Who are you?"

The said stranger looked nice, for a ninja. He was about thirty and had nice blue eyes with brown hair framing his face. He looked down at her and with more emotion than she had learned a ninja was supposed to have.

"Miss Haruno, there has been an incident involving your parents. Can you please come with me?"

She observed the Konoha headband wrapped neatly around his arm,

"You're a ninja; my parents would never associate with you."

She tucked a mass of tangled, slightly damp, pink hair behind her ear. The unknown man just looked down at her with a sorrowful look.

'_Something's wrong.'_

Before she could fathom up any "what ifs" he spoke again.

"Please Miss, we will explain everything when we get to the station," he pleaded," I suggest you get a change of clothes."

'_Kami!'_ she turned and ran up the stairs, glancing at all the family portraits her family had taken together over the years. She silently hoped that her parents were okay, but the pain in her heart and gut told her it was everything _but_ okay.

* * *

Uchiha Sasuke was sitting in a cold metal chair beside some guy he presumed was supposed to be there for comfort when she came in.

He had already stopped crying, already numb. Like he needed some guy to tell him it would be alright. Stupid.

'_Pink hair' _

He looked up just in time to see his classmate walk by.

She glanced at him, and then walked by briskly, the worry on her face undeniable. They put her in the same room he went in two hours before. He watched her scoot her chair to the table and prop on her elbows as she sat down through the glass window placed for interrogation purposes. He knew her from the academy they went to last year. She was smart…and she had a crush on him. _'Who cares'_ he concluded. All he could think about how his brother…no, his enemy...

And with that, Sasuke was swimming in his head full of the turmoil that had occured that night.

'_Ugh'_ He couldn't even hear his thoughts with all this noise! He looked up and heard which direction and exactly what room it was coming from. That's when he realized it was _her_ that he heard, screaming her head off. He turned to look at her, blinking his eyes. It was if the emotion that she was carrying on her heart was too much for crying, and screaming was the only thing left to do. Carelessly flinging her arms, she threw the chair she used to be sitting in. Only pain could be seen in her eyes. She thrashed while two male ninja tried to supress her. He looked back down and wondered what happened. Nothing could be more worse than his night, obviously.

The man who was sitting beside him noticed the attention the girl was getting, he angled his head at Sasuke.

"You know, you are not the only one that lost their whole family tonight. He orphaned her too."

At that exact moment in time, the numbness disappeared. Then he felt it, the hate, crawl in him and take over all his senses. It was almost overwhelming.

* * *

YEARS LATER

* * *

It was the first day of being a genin, and sitting in this cheap school chair propped on her elbows made Sakura feel anything but different. Then, as Iruka sensei started calling out names for teams, she turned to her own thoughts instead of listening. This team stuff didn't interest her. She didn't care who she was put on a team with, as long as they pulled the weight. She didn't need the looks of sorrow from people, as long as they stayed away and didn't poke thier nose in her business. And she definitely did not need Uchiha Sasuke around, he just reminded her of the bad dream that turned reality so long ago. So sitting here in this place looking at Iruka-sensei _not _call her name just seemed plain ole boring. She looked around at her school mates she had been with for the past five had never really gotten close to anyone. Actually, only two had made it past the 'What's your name' stage. There was her hyperactive outcast friend named Naruto. Then came Ino, with the nails and hair of a model. The rest just looked like people she would never see again. The real question is who really cared? Turning her head back to the front of the class she thought about the training that she was going to do tonight.

* * *

She noticed someone walking towards her from the right.

'_Late...' _she thought, but Iruka hardly noticed and continued to drill on.

She twisted her neck only to see her own personal reminder to what happened five years ago. Like a clock with an alarm, the thoughts of that night came buzzing back into her head like a swarm of bees. She quickly swatted them away and looked up. Immediately, her dark green eyes met the black holes that she remembered so long ago. _Uchiha Sasuke. _

'_So here we are, waiting for our lives to change_.' She silently commented to him.

It's not that she was scared of him, no; it's just terribly uncomfortable between them. You know, with the massacre of their parents and all, it would only be awkward silence. It just seemed normal for them to train, eat, sleep, and act happy…apart from one another. He gave her a slight acknowledging nod before deciding to sit on the other end of the three man seat, leaving a space in the middle. This being only intelligent from all the dumb crushes their classmates had on him, even her 'sort of friend but really an aquaintance' Ino had a crush on him. Sheesh.

'_Smart move…who would want to sit between the two orphaned loners?' _she accredited him before turning her attention to the racket coming from her right. Her other _best_ friend was running full-speed at her.

"Sakura!!!! I was, um, wondering if I could sit with you?" He asked sheepishly. This translated into, 'no one else wants to sit with the monster..so please?'

"Of course Naruto, here is a seat right beside me." She smiled a small smile of pity and motioned to the seat in between her and Sasuke.

"But Saaaaakkura-chan! It's by _him…." _hissing out the last word while making a face at Sasuke, who in turn, ignored him and the rest of the world.

Sakura sighed before doing Naruto's will and scooting over to the next cold cheap chair. She huffed.

'_Wouldn't this be one fun three man team to be on?' _she thought oh so sarcastically as she looked from her left to her right.

* * *

Much to the amazement of others, Sasuke was not a stoic ice statue. Actually, he was far from it. Having grown up really not wanting to talk to anyone, seeing as only useless girls wanted to talk to him anyway, he came up with alternative ways to keep himself from going insane. So that only left himself. Of course, that was only on the inside. On the outside, the majority of his answers were 'hn' and 'no' while staring straight ahead. But on the inside, he was quite the motor mouth. But no one said he was optimistic...

'_You have got to be kidding me! Has fate not had it's fun with me already?!'_

Sasuke could _not _believe his ears. A three man team with him, Naruto, and _Sakura_! Could this get any worse?

Naruto hated his guts, and the feelings were everything more than mutual. At least that was not _all _bad. But to have Sakura on his team would be more or less…unhappy. She had clearly tried to avoid him from the day _that _happened, now he was going to have to spar with her, or worse, talk to her…face to face! Sasuke calmed himself down..

It was only a few months of this team stuff before they were separated right?He looked at the newly founded team 7....

'_I wish Johnny raincloud would keep to himself these days.'_

As he sat in the classroom waiting for the new sensei to come and take them away to ninja-land, Sasuke could only feel even more forgotten. It had been two hours already, this was getting beyond ridiculous. So, remaining his usual stoic self, he decided to look around while acting as if he wasn't looking at anyone or anything at all. Up front, he observed Naruto having his fun at trying to think of new and exciting dirty words to write on the board, while Sakura just sat there much like himself. Suddenly, whether she felt his eyes or she was trying to sneek a peek at him as well, they caught each other's stares in thier own.

_'Oh crap…'_

Their eyes lingered on each others before she moved to lay her head down. He wondered what kind of fighting skills she had, or if she even was any good at all. He had never seen her train, but he _had_ heard those words that night.

_Flashback_

_He looked in horror as they had to restrain her. She was wrestling with two ninja at the moment, screaming bloody murder. She was struggling very hard to get away he observed._

"_LET.. ME GO I SAID!!! I TOLD YOU…. I'M GOING… AFTER HIM!!! I'M GOING TO KILL HIM!!!" _

_And that was when the glass window broke with the blow her foot had just made. Seeing her bloody ankle, she stopped resisting and calmed down, but not before having the last word._

"_You just wait and see how powerful I become. He will NEVER stop me."_

_End Flashback_

Maybe she was good. But then again, maybe she was not. Then a thought struck him oddly.

'_I hope she doesn't think that_ she _is going to be the one to kill him..does she?'_

* * *

Sakura had her eyes open under the tangle of her arms and hair_._

'_This desk is dirty.' _She grimaced. It was only a distraction thought, one to get her mind off of that boy. Uchiha…

She really did not know if she could go through with this or not, being on the team with him. Really, how was she supposed to cope? No longer could she be a mystery to him, no longer could she avoid him, and no longer could she act like they didn't have anything to do with each other. She sighed into the little cave she had created, making it humid and hot. For the need of fresh air, she picked her head up and opted for the usual position of leaning on her elbows. The thoughts of doubt quickly vanished.

'O_h well, this is not for me..this is for them, mom and dad. And I will get through this. ..To get stronger.'_

She was looking at Naruto trying to spell a word that she had never seen before whenever the new sensei came in. He looked at the board and gave Naruto a 'you have got to be kidding me' look and then turned his head towards Sasuke and I.

"Come on, time to get some fresh air." He drawled. The mask on his face with the silver hair oddly went together. It actually looked..normal. He turned around and started walking then, looking over his shoulder, he called to Naruto.

"And you there in the orange...Do you even know what that means?"

* * *

Sitting on the roof always made Kakashi feel better. It was wide open with plenty of wind to gently blow on his face. Considering he wore a mask, wind was good. He switched his attention to the mere young, very young, adults before him.

'_So this is team 7.'_

"You, with the black hair. What are your dreams, goals, likes, and dislikes…and your name would be nice too." With that, Kakashi's eyes curved into a smile.

Sasuke opened his eyes from where he had been trying to ignore everything. Sigh. Okay, here we go.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I like training. I don't like certain things. My dream is to be the best. And my goal is to kill a certain someone." He finished. And then closed his eyes again.

'_Well, I'm gonna have to get a hold on this one…I can't have an avenger ruining his life_.' Kakashi thought, while at the same time signaling to the girl in the middle.

Sakura's hair blew with the wind as she started talking. She had not really thought about the answers, she was just going to say what she felt. Wing it.

"My name is Haruno Sakura. I love to train, and have people over for dinner. I hate being alone in a big house, it's lonely. Please understand, my hair is natural. It runs in the..family. Um, my dream is to be a wonderful ninja. And my goal is also to kill someone." She added the last part hesitantly while not making eye contact with the mentally gaping Uchiha or her sensei who was wondering why _he _got placed with the rookie team of emos.

"Okay then, um, in the orange. Your next." He was trying to keep smiling but it was hard.

"I'm Uzamaki Naruto!!!! And I'm going to Hokage and write Itcha Itcha books…this man at the hot springs gave them to me. He said I would be enlightened. And I like ramen, it's the best. And I don't like…_him." _He pointed to Sasuke with a snarl on his face, "And that is about all huh. Uh, yeah!"

....The smile disappeared from Kakashi's face, but underneath the mask no one noticed. The old perverted frog summoned had done it again. He was going to have to do something about this, he could not go around and corrupt young men's heads all the time!

Kakashi sensei knew he could not teach all three of these…disturbed individuals. That is when he started formulating a plan behind that mask of his.

Listening to the sound of a distant bird calling, Kakashi 'poofed' into oblivian.


	2. Little Johnny Raincloud

EDIT 1-31-10: THE BOTTOM HALF OF THIS IS A NEW 9 PAGE LONG CHAPTER. ENJOY! And sorry for the delay. When college is kicking tail, getting your A is now top priority.

* * *

Jiraiya was in a pickle . . . and we are not talking about the nice big crunchy ones that go great with a grilled cheese. No, _this_ pickle was soggy, and bent in a total 90 degree angle that only a bad pickle would tolerate. You see, it all started at a hot spring, and we're not talking just any hot spring. _This _hot spring had towels that smelled of lavender, you know, for 'relaxing', co-ed dressing rooms, and even 'interesting' lady friends to chat with. So that should be reliable evidence that it was not _entirely_ his fault that he introduced a growing boy to porn. Really!

..The Third didn't buy it.

"But I don't want an apprentice!" Jiraiya waved his arms up and down for visual aid. Everyone knew the old man was blind as a bat.

The Third Hokage shook his head in disapproval.

"Kakashi really got the pick of this year, I'm sorry, but you are just going to have to make due. You know how special he is, he needs someone that can give him 'one on one' attention and teach him everything he needs to know. As _you _recently found out for us, Akatsuki is taking interest in Naruto's kind. You, therefore, should actually train him, and _not_ leave him in a hotel room to rot. Understand?"

"But I really _don't _have time for one right now, you see, I just so _happen _to be a very famous autho-"

"That being exactly what got you in this predicament Jaraiya. If you had not of started bragging about your book and threw an extra copy to that boy, he would not have been vandalizing school walls with certain _words_!" The third finished in a huff and gave him an eye as to say 'continue if you dare'.

Jiraiya pouted in defeat.

"As you wish, but this is only because you like Kakashi better."

"No, Jiraiya that is simply not the case. We were going to more than likely send him away anyway to train under some defense specialist. But when a perfect opportunity falls in our laps, one has to take it. _You _are that opportunity. Make Naruto the hero this village needs him to be." With that, the Hokage obviously had the last word.

Jiraiya was not pleased. Hot springs _always_ seemed to be the cause of his misfortune.

* * *

It was the _perfect _training day. The wind blew slight but steady, this helped sweating tremendously. It wasn't too hot or too frigid, and there was an occasional fluffy white cloud to blot out the sun. Really, it was just perfect. Too bad it was nine o'clock in the morning and there was no training, or sensei, in sight.

Team 7 sat on the bridge, which was by now rather gloomy.

Naruto, sensing the awkwardness between his two teammates, had retreated to the other side, where he was now debating to make a quick run for the ramen shop. Really, Kakashi _was_ two hours late.

Sakura was still where she perched herself when she got there that morning. Being the first one, she sat on the rail long ways with her back propped up against one of the bridge supports. Nothing was extremely awkward about that, right?

Well, our little avenging Sasuke was seated rather close to Sakura. Actually, when he got there this morning he sat himself right under Sakura, leaning against the same support beam that Sakura had chosen. The only major difference was that Sasuke was on the ground. Sakura was rather dumbfounded, but she quickly got over it and went back to imagining what the first day of training would be like, well, just trying to get her mind on anything but the strange boy under her.

* * *

Sasuke sat right where he was..With pride. He knew that at this precise moment Sakura was quite 'irked.' In his own unique way, he was trying to bridge the gap that Sakura had so fiercely tried to place between them. But the more he sat there under Sakura, the more he decided that she had completely turned her senses off to the outside world. Really, he didn't understand what was so hard about her talking, or even just _looking,_ at him. Really! _He_ chose to get over the fact that they were going to be together for a long time within 'talking' distance. _He _realized that he had to be on the same team and couldn't act like she didn't exist anymore. He _even_ realized that if he wanted anyone to be a friend, it would be her. She actually understood what if felt like to be him, and she wasn't even a fan-girl! So why couldn't _she_? He shook himself down a notch.

But that was only assuming if he wanted a friend anyway..

* * *

She finally gave up and decided to turn her thoughts to her teammate. Blast him. Did he not understand that she had horrible flashbacks whenever and wherever she saw him? What would it be like if she actually talked to him? Sakura mentally sighed. She knew that as a kunoichi, she would just have to get over it. He was her teammate now, and that meant teamwork. Teamwork, as everyone knows, consists of talking, eating together at restaurants, missions only Kami knows how long to complete, and even insider jokes that only they would laugh at. She finally succumbed to defeat. Knowing that it was going to happen sooner or later, she opted for going ahead and getting it over with. Okay, she can do this. Just take a deep breath and go for it.

…Why did using her vocal cords suddenly seem like pulling teeth out of a lion's mouth?

"Hey, Uchiha" Sakura towered over him trying to get his attention. Sasuke opened his eyes, but promptly closed them again.

"Um, Uchiha..Hello?" She cursed her inner self for making her try again. Really, if he didn't want to talk no sense in pushing it, right?

Sasuke opened his eyes, again. The voices just seem so _real_. Looking to his left and right slyly, he found no one there. He decided to close them again.

Sakura leaned over her teammate even more and decided that the Uchiha was just deaf or completely anti-social.

"Hello? I know you can hear—ah!" She fell off the beam.

* * *

'_Why do I feel like an accordion?_'

Sasuke felt pain, and his body was not supposed to be in this position. He laid there trying to figure out if this was going to last for eternity or not. The grunting of another human and the sudden lack of weight brought him back to reality.

He still felt like a crumpled piece of paper that had just been ran over, _twice_.

"You fell on me? Really, you are a _kunoichi_, those types of things usually aren't supposed to happen often." He stated while unfolding his body and looking up towards her. She was fiddling with the hem of her dress thing that she always wore.

"Well, I was just going to ask you about the weather or something when you just _happened _to ignore me. So obviously, it's your fault." She retorted. Hey, she talked, but no one said it would be nice. Especially when he was being a total…meanie head.

"The weather? Sakura.." He felt stiff as he got up off the ground to face her, "Really, the weather?" It was a complete and total sarcastic thing to say, and she didn't like it.

"You know what? I was just trying to be nice. But now that I know you don't want any human contact at all, you won't have to worry about it ever again." She huffed.

"Hn."Like _he _was going to say he didn't mean it like that. He was just..teasing. Uchihas never apologize in any shape, sort, or fashion, even if they really were sorry.

She looked utterly appalled.

"Your '_hn-ing'_ me? Oh, you have _got_ to be kidding." She placed her hands on her hips to accompany the raised eyebrow on her pretty face.

Sakura opened her mouth to retort even more when she was rudely interrupted.

"I see that we have now mastered conversation skills." Kakashi observed from above them.

Both persons from below shot him a look. How long had he been there?

"Well, now that I'm here we can start... tomorrow! You see, Team 7.." He jumped down and faced them, including Naruto who just amazingly showed up, noodles still in his mouth. " is in a special group of circumstances. Naruto, I would like to inform you that you are being transferred. From now on, you will be an apprentice." Kakashi looked pleased.

"Cool! …What's that?" Naruto tried to play it off cool, but the scratching behind his head thing with the big grin gave it away.

"It's when you travel with your very own sensei, training as you go. This is just like one, huge A-ranked mission. So everything you learn is crucial, understand?"

Naruto just stared. Kakashi wondered if he should ask if he had any questions but realized he should wait until the end to ask.

"Continuing, you will be going with Jiraiya. He is a good teacher, so mind him. Naruto?" He really wanted to know if he was having an out of body experience or something. Naruto not talking equaled something terribly wrong.

Naruto seemed to snap out of it. Looking up at his now former sensei, he asked the most serious and heartfelt question that has ever come from his mouth.

"You mean no more ramen?"

* * *

Sasuke and Sakura could not believe their ears. The same thoughts seemed to be drifting through both of their heads. Really, _he_ was leaving? _He _was getting his own sensei?

He would be traveling on an _A-ranked_ mission?

…What was wrong with them? Was tieing for first place in the academy not enough? That all along the 'real geniuses' were in last place passing by the skin on their teeth?

Kakashi turned towards them, sensing the sudden panic.

"You two will be staying under the guidance of me, being Konoha's first and only Team 7 that consisted of only two individuals." He stated, his mask barely moving. What he did not say was that even though Naruto would not be with them anymore, he still had a huge job ahead of him. If they weren't strong enough just the two of them, they would not pass. But that was a gamble the third felt necessary.

Sasuke talked first. " But, Sensei, isn't that…illegal?"

Kakashi seemed rather tickled. "No Sasuke, on the contrary. If the Hokage deems it so, then it is." His eyes turned up into a smile.

Sakura pursed her lips while cocking her head to one side. She decided to question him as well.

" Kakashi Sensei, when does he leave?" She asked. Losing her parents and now one of her best friends wasn't going to suit her well in the long run.

'_Just remember…I'm a _kunoichi.. _I can handle it.' _Somehow she was hoping this was a dream.

"He will technically become his apprentice after this meeting, and will be leaving tomorrow morning. That reminds me, Team 7 training also starts in the morning. Dawn, here at the bridge. Eat breakfast only if you want to throw up. Naruto, you will accompany me after this meeting is over to the Hokage's office. Any other questions?"

Sakura looked as if she was about to cry.

Sasuke looked unmoved.

And Naruto looked confused.

The blonde slowly raised his hand in the air.

"Yes?"

"Do you think my new sensei will be mad if I bring a certain 'book' collection with me?"

* * *

You know those mornings that you wake up all cheery and happy, and then you remember that your life sucks, or that10 minute speech you have to give, or maybe that your best friend was leaving for about five years?

Well, Sakura wasn't even that lucky.

Waking up, she immediately saw Fate and Gloom looming at her wooden bed post, almost taunting her to get out of bed. Deciding that it was time to go ahead and get this rather depressing day over with, she quietly made her morning routine even quicker, and ate a banana just to spite her stupid sensei.

Today was the day that Naruto leaves.

Of course, Sasuke would be happy, but that wasn't even in her top priorities at the moment. She shoved that pig headed boy out of her mind. Other thoughts drifted to her head.

_No more getting dragged to a small cramped ramen stall. No more bright blue eyes clashing with her jade. No more list_..

No. She wasn't going to do this. Even if he was the only thing that she had left, she really was too dependent on him.

_Kunoichi_ don't do this.

Sakura walked to her bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. Her dark green eyes stared back at her with a bored expression of neither caring nor worry.

_Speaking of luxuries…_

Slowly taking out a kunai, she held it limply in her right hand, contemplating her decision.

She had always cared for her hair. Really, it was the only thing that she ever cherished. It was long, healthy, beautiful, and more or less a tribute to her parents. She slowly lifted the perfectly sharpened weapon to her hair.

_It would only get in her way…._

She was just about to make her tresses a less than cute bob when she heard the door to her apartment being knocked on. She threw the kunai in the sink, concluding she would think about that later, and quickly fixed herself at her closet entrance. Rushing her red sleeveless shirt with a Haruno symbol on the back over her head, and her black skirt with slits on the side for easy movement up her legs, she ran to the door.

* * *

Sasuke was rather nervous at where he was, what he was doing, and his reasons for even doing this.

He auto-deleted that thought from his head. Sasuke didn't _do_ nervous.

He looked at the door, contemplating the pros and cons of what he knew he would eventually do. He rose up his hand for the third time to knock on this ugly brown piece of wood.

_She might be the definition for awkward conversations to me, but she is my team-mate now. _

…_Just do this and get it over with. _

Lowering his hand, he sighed.

…This was stupid. She would never be his friend, even if she was the only person that understood his pain. It was just too weird between them.

_Awkward._

There it was again. That little angel thing on his shoulder telling him this had to be done.

Screw it.

His hand rose up and more or less banged on the door, out of anger or sheer grumpiness at the situation no one knows. He heard something clang and the ruffle of fabrics before the pounding of footsteps came closer.

Haruno Sakura stood before him in a ninja outfit he didn't even knew she owned. She must have been saving it for this day.

Their first day as Genin.

She looked at him for a moment and then moved aside.

"It's early; you can come in if you want. I'm not sure why you're here, but I'm almost ready." With that he nodded and quickly stepped past her and found the couch. Sitting, he decided that that was a very unorthodox Sakura, and the situation was nothing as he had planned out in his head. Running his hand through his hair, he saw Sakura make her way past him into a small hallway that ran out of the room.

Well, he was off to a good start more or less. She didn't kill him, or at least didn't attempt to at this point. He carefully strained to listen for any noise that would give away the shifting of weapons.

…Nope, he was in the clear.

Hearing the soft click of a door knob, he watched as she shifted into her kunoichi boots from one foot to another. Throwing her long hair into a pony tail, she finished her look with tying her head band around her arm.

_What a weird place to fasten such a thing._

She looked at him, fastened her weapons holster around her right thigh, and nodded to him. Being signaled that it was time to leave; he promptly got up and walked towards the door.

"Wait."

He looked back at her and watched her run to what he concluded was the kitchen. Coming back through the opening, he was slightly taken back when she threw something at him. Looking down at what his hands had automatically caught, he smirked.

_Banana_?

"…Just to spite Sensei. Besides, I'm not really fond of cramps," she said.

Looking at the peace offering he held, he shrugged and unwrapped the fruit. Taking a bite, he finalized what sort of treaty they had just come up with.

"Thanks."

And with that, they were on their way to Ninja Bootcamp Hell: Day one.

* * *

Sakura respected the silence as they briskly walked to the red bridge that was deemed Team 7's meeting place. She knew Sasuke had understood what she had offered.

Peace.

They didn't have to be all buddy-buddy, but she knew they could get along good enough to function as a team.

It must have taken a lot of that gutsy Uchiha pride to come over this morning, not fully knowing what to expect from her. She was rather proud of herself that she didn't slam the door with such a force that it kept going only to connect to his smirky face.

No, it was better this way. Even if he was her own personal reminder of what happened so long ago, it was what needed to be done to survive and flourish as a kunoichi.

Nearing the bridge she peeks at the ramen stand Naruto always loved to go to. Smiling softly, she concluded her goodbyes in her head. It was what had to be done.

Apparently, this was the beginning of her road as a shinobi.

* * *

Sasuke neatly sat down on the bridge support closest to him in his usual position of elbows on knees. He closed his eyes and decided that he was rather pleased with his team's current situation. He had never seen her fight, but he was sure she would be adequate, if not more.

He was more than happy that she loved silence as much as he did and didn't talk like all the other annoying girls his age. And even more surprising is that she accepted the peace that now sat neatly between them.

He could get used to this.

Hearing movement to his left, Sasuke was rather confused when Sakura chose to sit beside him. Taking a scroll from her pack, she started reading it, and was quickly lost in her own world.

Well, this was…unsettling. Maybe she really did understand that they had to be more conversationally skilled than 'How's the weather?'.

…He decided to chance it.

"You ate too I assume?" he looked at her.

"Aa," she quickly replied, not even looking up.

Well, that was a real improvement. He faced the other side of the bridge again; quickly deciding that talking to her would bring no more than frustration and one word responses.

They sat like that, Sakura reading up on techniques and Sasuke being Sasuke for about an hour and a half before Sensei decided to show.

* * *

Sakura quickly packed her scroll into her pack as he hopped down from the same post he materialized on the day before.

"You know, being late is a bit unprofessional," she quipped as she dusted herself off.

Sasuke mentally agreed.

"Well, I'm here now, so let's get started." Kakashi drawled.

Before she knew what he was doing, Sensei was behind her, and then even under her. Analyzing the fact that she was being held in the air by her team leader, she could only gape as threw her straight up into the sky.

_Really_??

She noted as she came to the top height and started her descent back to the Earth that he had already moved out of the way. She quickly flipped her body quickly upright, and landed with not much grace, but sufficient enough that her right knee bent under her and her left leg out to the side.

She felt like a bad ass ninja for the first time.

* * *

Sasuke quickly tensed up and waited for Kakashi to resurface.

He wasn't stupid; they would have to face him together. He quickly made his way to her and yanked her out of her landing pose by her elbow.

"Back to back," he ordered. She nodded and turned around.

They waited for any sign of Sensei.

Sasuke slowly took a kunai out of his holster, assuming this was a real test. He saw Sakura glance back at him, and follow suit.

Suddenly, there was a massive wave of water come out from under the bridge; it sprang right for them. He realized just as they dashed opposite ways that Kakashi had effectively split them up.

He cursed under his breath.

There was a sheet of water that separated the bridge into equal halves. He could make out Sakura on the other side, assessing the situation just as he was.

_A water jutsu, how annoying. _

He watched as Sakura threw a kunai at the water, only to have it bounce back. Quickly dodging her own weapon, she decided to jump on the side of the bridge. Sasuke saw the man behind her right as she felt his presence on her own.

Watching her hit the water shield helplessly, he was relieved she wasted no time in getting back up. Slowly, after making sure the enemy was nowhere to be found, she turned and looked at him. Wiping the blood off her lip with her forearm, her eyes seemed to change somehow. As she turned to spit, Sasuke started towards the shield. When she faced it once more, she held up her arm to signal to him to stop. It wasn't as if he could do anything anyway with it still here.

Sasuke stared at her, assessing that only a bloody lip was the outcome. His eyes came back to hers and they instantly locked.

Looking through the nearly transparent shield, she nodded to him.

He immediately understood; from that moment on it would be perfectly clear.

They might be alone, but they both knew they would be in this together from now on.

Team 7 had finally arrived.


	3. Training Time

I'm sorry for neglecting!!!! I hate college and I hate finals. So what am I doing when I am supposed to be studying? Cramming the plot bunnies that infested my brain onto paper and trying to have some peace. I know this is short, but it will have to do. I apologize!!!

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Sarutobi walked into his office with a huff and a physical slump. Blame it on the old age, but he always hated afternoon meeting nowadays. He threw his ceremonial Hokage head dressing into the faded purple couch in the far corner and settled himself at his desk with a small 'oof'.He hated purple and vowed to get rid of that thing by next week. Glancing from that eye sore to his cluttered desk, he shoved some unwanted paper out of his way and found what he was looking for. The files were already open, just as he had left them before his assistant called, informing him that the Hyuga clan waiting in the conference room.

_Haruno Sakura_

_Orphaned_

_Special interest category for such a talent with chakra control, leading to genjutsu specialist and/or medic-nin field of occupation. Weakness includes poor ninjutsu, though this could be due to no blood line limit with heavy genetic chakra reservoirs. Taijutsu and reflexes above average with rapid improvement expected. Genius at retaining and referring from information with 100% accuracy._

_Sasuke Uchiha_

_Orphaned_

_Special interest category for ninjutsu specialist because of chakra reservoirs and Bloodline limit of Sharingan. Genjutsu is a high possibility for master status, though all relies on Bloodline. Taijutsu well above average at time of academy graduation. Genius at retaining and referring to information with 100% accuracy, and some average skill in strategy for age._

Sarutobi looked at his condensed report again, glancing at the words that had troubled him for the past week. He wasn't so sure that these two could handle being on a two man team, though he had already deemed it legal. He was positive that they would feed off of each others skill, getting stronger with each passing day. Sasuke did not have the potential of powerful genjutsu yet because his sharingan was not nearly developed. Sakura was a different story. And though Sakura was about average at taijutsu, Sasuke was off the charts. Yes, he had made a good choice. They would just have to get over the horrendous past that dwelled between them and see what a wonderful two man op team they would make. As he picked up his pipe to have a some peace ease his brain, he closed the files and heard a satisfying 'thump' as they landed in the 'done' pile. He had just about dozed off when two junin came in with even more reports to be taken care of.

'Kuso.'

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Back to back they stood with the mysterious water shield in between them. Sakura tried to ignore the stinging and swelling in her lip, though it was nagging her consciousness anyway. She could feel Sasuke's presence, her team-mate, just behind her, calculating and scanning the area. Collectively she deduced that Sensei would probably go after Sasuke this time, seeing as she had been already thrown..twice. She took a quick scan from her left to right, nothing.

Suddenly, a significant amount of free-falling water landed on their heads. Shaken from their analyzing brain stupor, they shot their heads up. There he was, balanced on the water shield itself, smiling his crinkling old eye at them. Sasuke scowled, and it didn't do anything to make him look any less adorable. Sakura sighed, he had been right above them for how long?

The shield started to shrink vertically and Kakashi rode it down, effectively landing neatly between them.

"Now that's what I'm talking about, Teamwork!" he patted both sulking adolescents on their water soaked heads. "Great job, I might not send you back to the academy yet. Though, I thought we would already know ninja don't just hide 'left to right', they hide everywhere. Oh well, we know now don't we?"

Sakura growled, losing the innocent look that her pink locks and green irises usually radiated. No one was sending her back to that babysitting service.

Kakashi looked down at his female genin, "And great reflexes Sakura, you surprised me with you ability to handle yourself in the air."

He then turned to his lone Uchiha, "Sasuke, you have quite the strategic mind, knowing what to do in unknown situations. You did good."

This did little to comfort their egos.

"So, I say we head on over to training ground 12 and get started on some _real_ training." hoping this would get them to react.

Both Sakura and Sasuke looked at each other, smirked, and started to the training ground areas.

Kakashi chuckled. "Oh, Team 7, you don't think you are going to walk over there like a civilian do you?" He pulled a package from absolutely nowhere and threw them at his team's feet.

"Everything you do from now on will be training, so put these on."

Sasuke reached down and tore the package open, surprised to see slightly bulky, black wrist and ankle bands. Puzzled, he picked one up, surprised at the weight they could pack into such a little ornament. Slipping them on, he found that they had to at least be 15 pounds or more.

He turned to Sakura, noticing her slipping on similar green bands. She looked at him warily and he nodded. 'These things were heavy to be operating in.'

Sakura took a few steps, recalibrating her step and what force she needed to apply to have her original effect. This wasn't pie.

They turned to Kakashi, who was gleaming with sadistic joy.

"Glad to see they fit young ones, I'll see you at the training grounds. They are approximately three miles away, and you have 21 minutes to get there. That is a seven minute mile, but of course you guys already knew that. Happy running!"

Before they could retort to his communist ways, he was already gone.

Sasuke turned to Sakura, "You ready to do this?" She looked at him with a touch of pity.  
"Yeah, but it's going to hurt like hell tonight, huh." It was more of a statement than a question.

He looked at her and smirked.  
"Hn." He nodded and with that, they were off, trying to regain the fifteen seconds they had already lost.

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Twenty three minutes.

They had missed their mark.

Both had immediately thrown themselves to the ground and waited for life to come back once more. Before they had thirty seconds to even dream of resting, Kakashi was above them.

"Really, I was expecting so much more. Oh well, let's get on with it." He turned and walked towards the middle of the grounds, motioning them to follow.

Dragging themselves to their feet, they reluctantly followed.

Kakashi turned around and looked pleased with himself. In reality, he hadn't thought they could of gotten there in twenty five minutes with his weights he bought for them. Good team, good team.

He turned to face them.

"Alright team 7, it's no secret that you two specialize in different things. Sakura, you like genjutsu with a touch of Tai and acquired some pretty decent ninjutsu, though you don't have the chakra built up to fully use them without leaving yourself drained. Sasuke, you haven't even tapped into the potential chakra you could build up, and your taijutsu is well above average. This leaves me to conclude that we need to work on Tai. You guys both need to tap into those potential chakra banks, and the stronger you get, they more chakra you save. Make sense? Good. Face each other and spar when I say. I want only tai, let's see what you have kiddos." With that he concluded his wordiest speech yet and sank into the background.

Sasuke looked at his teammate, she smiled weakly and shrugged. Though she couldn't be happy that she knew she was fixing to hurt even more, she was happy that her team bond was strong now, and she liked having an acquaintance.

Kakashi studied his little children. He was overjoyed when he finally got them to notice on the bridge that they needed each other. It was fantastic. They were talking, looking at each other, and smirking. Though he wasn't so sure he liked the smirking yet. They were finally a team with a bond. And even though the bond was created on tragedy, he felt like they would probably be best friends for the rest of their careers, even teammates.

Maybe more.

...That was just silly, they're twelve!

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	4. New Ninjas

Romance is going to take place a LOOOONNNNNG TIME FROM NOW...

**Something about this story makes me want to scream ordinary. I want to write about their time growing up, learning life lessons, training, and trying to interact with each other. It's just their life in an alternate universe. The major plot problems...and romance... come later, when they grow up!!!! I know this is a different approach I'm taking than, like, all the other writers in this place. But I hope you like watching these two grow up...without Sakura trying to glomp him. **

**And as always, Saku/Sasu rules the freaking universe.**

**This is going to be a LONG story. **

DISCLAYMORE(hehe): Masashi will die by my hands if he doesn't let Sakura grow up sometime soon.

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Pain. Excruciating. Especially in the abdominal region.

Sakura looked down at her abs as she performed yet another sit up. Groaning inwardly, she ho heaved and continued her training. To her right she could feel her teammate going at a slight faster pace than she was going, effectively stirring up slight amounts of dust. To her left, sitting on the only patch of grass on the whole training ground, was her sensei reading some adult romance novel. Sakura always thought that only lonely middle aged women read those disgusting things.

Sadly, not true.

The pair had finished their sparring session yesterday with groans, bruises, cursing, and glares. They were more equal than they at first thought. Her chakra molding capacity was easily out done by the Uchiha, but he wasted so much of it that it hardly mattered. She favored air techniques, he favored fire. Though they only knew small ninjutsu techniques, they continued to block and cancel out each other's ninjutsus. When that was no longer an option, they turned and started taijutsu. Things turned ugly. With speed that Kakashi appreciated in the two youngsters, they wizzed punches by each other in attempt to one up. They both had acrobatic skills that easily surpassed some chunin, and even though they were young, they had a fair amount of knowledge with strategy. When they no longer exert any more physical energy, Kakashi called it a wrap and threw them two water bottles. Each glaring at the other, they stormed home, both forgetting that they had they weights on the whole time.

Sakura sped up her pace. She wasn't about to let a Uchiha try and surpass her, even though they were equally good at their own trades. Smirking to herself, she felt her body synch to his rhythm and then, because she _was_ Sakura, she sped up a tiny bit more.

Just to spite him.

Sasuke cut her a glare, easily matching her pace, but grunting slightly. The pain was annoying. Watching her speed up even more only made him more grumpy. With a huff and a look of triumph, he laid back on the ground, refusing to move anymore. Smirking, he looked at her waiting on her response.

"Sas, you didn't finish," she insisted, pink hair frizzy from the sweat.

Sasuke continued to stare for a moment before answering, "No, I didn't. I beat you to 200."

Her eyes immediately cut him in half. "No,"she ground out, "You did not."

"Did too." He was getting up now, trying to dust the dirt off his normally spotless outfit. "And don't call me Sas."

She bounced up almost too quickly for a girl her size and place her hands on her hips. "Well, if someone didn't cheat, then I wouldn't call them Sas."

He turned around and faced her, "Well, if someone wouldn't get behind and goof off, then they wouldn't come in last...hmmm, _Sak_?"

"Don't call me that idiot, that makes it sound like you're calling me sock."

Sasuke's patience was rolling thin by now, it was getting a little spicy in here.

"_You_ are calling me Sauce!" he threw back.

"Shut up Sas, you're annoying."

"Hn." Sasuke growled.

Turning their backs on one another, they faced their eager Sensei. Kakashi was crinkling his eye at them again, that usually meant trouble.

Kakashi stood up, dusting himself off. It would be easier to take them standing than sitting he concluded.

"Team, I have an announcement. As you both know, you are both not able to access your trust funds until you hit the age eighteen, is that correct?" Both of his comrades nodded once. "Good, that making sense. But, that means that the city of Konoha has been supporting both of your housing for a good three years. It has come to my atten-"

"No," the word rolled off Uchiha's tongue rather quickly.

"But of course you are Sasuke, it's only logical." Kakashi started smiling again.

"Sensei, if you are implying that I move in with that _boy_, then you have officially gone off the deep end." Sakura insisted.

"Now, now, it would not be that bad. We are fixing to start doing missions anyway, so there is no use in supporting two households while two ninja are gone. You will both be supplied your own bedroom and bathroom. They only thing you guys will share is the living room and kitchen. And let's face it, do you guys even know how to boil water?"

Sakura looked down sheepishly, being a kunoichi, she was supposed to learn all that nonsense. But, as we all know, she was more of a 'thrill of the kill' kinda girl.

Sakura looked at Sasuke, who in turn found him looking at her. He held her eyes looking bored and tried to read her expression. It seemed that they continuously just get uprooted and yanked somewhere else. This was ridiculous.

"Whatever."

Stuffing his hands in his pockets, he turned to leave.

"Is that all?"

Kakashi shook his head. "Not really, you see, we already moved your stuff. Here's the key,"He threw it at Sakura, who easily caught it. "I would suggest that you two go pick up some groceries, two people who both have milk that's over two weeks old is just unsanitary."

And with that, he poofed.

Sakura turned to Sasuke, "I guess it's too late to yell about him breaking and entering our houses."

He looked back, "Yeah, guess so."

She caught up with him and started to walk along side, matching his , it did make sense. So the pair didn't dwell on their living arrangements. They both knew that as long as they made their goal in the years to come, it didn't matter how they got there.

Making their way past all the other training grounds, they enjoyed the silence. Sakura fiddled with her headband on her arm, while Sasuke moved at a set pace.

About fifty feet ahead of them, they could see a trio making their way up the path, presumably to seek out a training ground themselves. Sakura and Sasuke thought nothing of it, until they could make out the individuals.

It seemed they were their own age, though they did not graduate with them. The girl in the middle, subconsciously twirling a kunai around her index finger was avidly talking to her teammate. Though, Sasuke was not even sure that thing was human, for he was dressed head to toe, in spandex.

Horrifying.

The other teammate, who seemed to be put out, was silently walking and assessing the scenery around him.

Sasuke was about to tell Sakura about the weird guy when all of the sudden, said weird guy was right in front of them.

Sakura looked horrified as they boy in spandex leered dangerously close to her face.

Forcing down a insult, Sakura calmly told the crazy boy, "Get _out_ of my face."

He didn't look fazed in the slightest.

"Let me introduce myself, young woman, for I wish to get to know you, the beauty of Konoha!" he exclaimed. In the background, his female teammate shook her head in embarrassment.

"I am Lee! The Green Beast of Konoha!" And with that, he struck a horrendous pose that consequently, and accidentally, thrust his hips in Sakura's direction.

Sakura growled in agitation.

"Well, Lee.."She ground out, "You see here, me and my teammate are just going into town, now if you would please just--"

Suddenly speaking, the other male teammate spoke, interrupting Sakura.

"He introduced himself, it is only manners that you introduce you, and your party, back as well."

Sakura looked taken back, and this is when Sasuke stepped in.

"You just interrupted my partner, it is only rules that you introduce yourself first. Or just shut up." He retorted.

The boy with long hair narrowed his eyes only to quickly regain composure.

"Hyuga Neji, and you?"

"Uchiha Sasuke, and my teammate is Haruno Sakura."

Neji smirked at Sakura, "Fitting name."

"Thankyou, Neji-san." Sakura thanked with such sarcasm, even Lee knew the tension was building between teams.

Trying to break the eerie feeling between the two teams, the female spoke with a grin.

"I'm Ten-Ten! I see you guys are missing a teammate, is he sick?"

Sasuke smirked, "Actually, we are a team. By ourselves." He was obviously proud.

Lee gasped, "How is that possible, everyone has a three man team."

Sakura spoke up this time. "Well, it seems that we can get the job done in two people, instead of three." Placing her hands on her hip, she haughtily posed for the trio.

Neji stepped towards Sakura, "I know you are not degrading superiors, are you?"

Sasuke stepped his right foot in front of Sakura. "I know you aren't threatening. Are you threatening my partner?" Sakura could feel this start to escalate.

Neji spoke again. "Maybe. It seems you two are quite confident."

"You speak correct." the Uchiha threw back.

"Maybe you would like to spar some time?" Neji managed to ask politely.

"Actually," Sakura continued as she sped towards him, "Let's just spar now."

Her punch was blocked, and the kick soon after. Sasuke, Ten-ten, and Lee stood mouth agape at the scene unfolding before them. It was only when Sakura was holding her ground against Neji's onslaught of fists that Ten Ten managed to speak.

"She's not bad."

Sasuke only smirked.

With the fighting pair effectively fighting in circles around their audience, they were surprised when a hit was landed on Sakura. Grunting, she quickly rebounded and landed a kick on the male ninja. He was obviously thinking that she would stay on the ground.

With both sitting on the ground facing each other, Lee stepped in between.

"Enough you two! It is not honorable to try and wound another Konoha ninja looking for blood." Sakura looked at Neji only to nod and then stood again. Going back to stand by her teammate, she whispered a quick apology to Sasuke, making sure he was the only one to hear.

Neji shifted to his feet, though didn't take his eyes off Sakura. He was obviously not happy by being placed on the ground by a girl.

Ten-ten, seeing as this was the time to intervene, quickly spoke up. "You two looked like you were going somewhere. I think that it's time for us to continue to our training ground. Nice to meet you!" She then latched her fists onto her teammates garb and dragging them away.

Sasuke nodded once and made his was past the team. Sakura followed, though when she went to pass Neji, he shoved his shoulder into hers as he passed.

Sakura waited a couple seconds to get farther away before she spoke.

"Obviously, out business isn't done with them."

Sasuke shook his head. "No, but at least you showed him who wears the pants."

Sakura giggled. "Yeah, I guess I did didn't I."

Continuing the way they had originally started, they started towards a local grocery store.


	5. HouseMates

**Continue Now=Rewrite Later**

**I would just like to say one thing first though, before I continue on. I never EVER ask for reviews(OMG! Tell me you lUVVV my storiee or yor gonna dieeeeeee!!11!!!1!1)((gag me)), EVER. But there is one thing I do ask for, and that's feedback. **

**1. What funny scenes can you guys see the characters doing?**

**2. What would you guys like to see in the story?**

**3. I don't really have time to proof read(Finals, mothers that think children like me should study every waking second instead of take some time and choose an outlet, essays, applying to colleges, and much more). I kid you not when I say that I type and post straight up to hide from my mother. If it gets too bad…TELL ME. My opinion on it is that if I make a mistake or two, the updating of the story itself overrules it. If this is not the case or you do not agree, then please, once again, TELL ME. **

**If you want to tell me you like my story, please go on ahead! But I will never ever hold a gun to your head and say "I'm not going to update until I get ### number of reviews." This place is a sanctuary to me; it let's my mind go free and quite frankly helps me relax. I love writing, and nothing pleases me more than someone to say they love my work **_**voluntarily**_**. **

*****As a writer, I want to please you!!*****

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Sakura hastily fiddled with the newly added ornament on her key holder while simultaneously juggling three bags of groceries on her other arm. Sticking the key into the lock on her new front porch, she heard the satisfying click. Smiling to herself she turned to her side and, with her hip, nudged the door open. As she took her first steps into her new home, she sighed as she found a space open in front of her and dumped the grocery bags in the floor. She would explore first, put away later. Finally getting a chance to size up the small apartment, she gasped in surprise.

"What a-"

"Shit hole?" Sasuke finished her exact thought. He knew exactly how she felt at the moment. How could Kakashi give them such a crummy apartment? Oh yeah, they were never going to be there supposedly. Psh.

Shoving his groceries beside Sakura's he came to stand by her side.

Scanning the room, he noticed that the kitchen was in a small cubby on the left. What it held could only be the most hideous orange refrigerator in the world. He didn't know if the color had changed from yellow to what it was now from it's years of use, or if that is how that thing came out from the factory. Regardless, bleach would heavily be involved. Continuing on, straight ahead was a quaint living room. It surprisingly held suitable furniture, though the coffee table, that was the centerpiece in the room, looked like it had suspiciously been gnawed upon. Sasuke's face held disgust. To their right was a small hallway, and he noticed Sakura was already mobile. Following his partner, he found that the small hallway had a door on the immediate right and left, and one door straight ahead. Letting Sakura choose, he followed her into the room on the left. There was a small bed and two dressers. He assumed that the other bedroom contained roughly the same thing. Assuming by the Uchiha comforter that graced the uncomfortable looking mattress, he guessed that this would be his room. Sakura quickly went to check out her small corner of the house, but quickly came back in moments later.

"Sas, we have a problem." She spoke obvious urgency.

"You are already going to start whi-"

"There is only one bathroom." She interrupted.

"But Kakashi said that-"

"I know!" She huffed, crossing her arms and visibly pouting.

Seeing the look on her face, he decided against screaming 'shut your mouth and stop interrupting me' just this once.

"Hn." The noncommittal grunt seemed to rub the pink haired girl the wrong way.

"Of course _you're_ fine! You're a dumb _boy_! But I need to have some privacy you know," She seemed like she was finished until she snapped her head back up and glared. "Don't you dare touch my things!" and with that she stomped out the room, leaving a mysteriously confused Uchiha.

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Things settled down over the night. Sakura quickly decided that productivity would be best, and busied herself with putting away the newly acquired merchandise. It was weird fusing the items from the two ninjas into one household. The plates that had been neatly boxed and brought over seemed to oddly clash, her light green, thin circle plates and his square plain white ones.

His tall clear glasses seemed to look funny mixed in with her short rounded juice glasses.

It was…odd.

She wondered if anyone ever visited, which she highly doubted, if they would think the occupants of the house to be bipolar.

Sighing, she went and dug something out of her pack. Finding what she was looking for, she called her teammate.

"Sas!"

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He was being summoned. Sitting up in his bed he quickly uprooted himself and found his way into the small kitchen.

"What?" he nonchalantly remarked

That's odd, she was just sitting there with a pen and notepad.

"Well, since we are living together, I thought we ought to think some things through. Like chores?" Sasuke grimaced. He knew this would be coming.

"Hn." He pulled out a chair from the four man table and sat to her left.

"I was thinking that we could get some laundry bins and at the end of the week, or just when they are full of course, we could have a laundry day of sorts and tackle it." She looked at him. "Does that sound good to you?"

Sasuke had never done such a thing. He told her as much.

"I go through a lot of training clothes, I usually do my laundry every third day."

"Well, I guess we could do it every Tuesday and then maybe Friday or Saturday, deciding on which day by how many clothes we have left."

Sasuke nodded. That sounded adequate.

"As far as cooking, well, I know I'm a girl but" Sasuke chose to ignore whatever she was going to say and input his own thoughts.

"We managed this long by ourselves. It will be taken care of. Instant meals, vegetable, and fruit. Tomatoes. You know, the basics. We can eat out; we both have plenty of money."

She nodded at this.

"Okay. Sounds good." She felt better already. The unknowns were quickly going away.

"Well, that covers the basics I think. We both seem pretty tidy, so I doubt we'll be yelling at each other about being slobs. As for getting a couple things from the store I forgot, I'm going to go get them now. Wanna come with?" She looked at him for an answer as she stood up and put her chair back under the table.

Sasuke almost considered it.

"No, I'll just go out back and train." He would leave all that home stuff to women.

Sakura just shrugged.

"Okay, be back in a bit."

He watched his partner slide on her boots and silently leave the house.

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Now, Sasuke could be described as many things: Cold, hard, scary, moody, mean, and silent to name just a few. So, as to how he found himself here, standing outside his partners closed off door, he wondered if anyone ever thought of him as a snoop. He inspected what he assumed to be just a normal wooden door, finding no traps whatsoever. He idly wondered if she would ever put any up. He then switched his focus on to why he was standing here anyway, his teammate gone and what could be called trespassing: What is it that she kept closed off for so many years? Like him, he bet that she stashed quite a few of her family's memorabilia around. He was drawn to normal everyday items that he saw his family interact with daily. He thought of his mother's very domestic looking apron that he had folded neatly in drawers, or his father's pen that he always used to sign documents at the kitchen table sealed away in a wooden box. These things were very precious to him, though he doubted if Sak would ever find out. Quietly opening the door, he pondered inside. At first he noticed her bed spread was not the color he had expected it to be. It was a light baby blue…that's odd. He stepped further inside to give himself more room to look. He noticed that she had weapons laid neatly on top of her dresser, along with what he assumed to be her bath basket and robe. So she had already improvised, interesting. Looking at the small unsatisfactory chair in the corner, he found what seemed to be a small chest sitting on it.

Sasuke swooped in.

Opening the light wooden box, he was quite surprised to what he found inside. One pair of jade stud earrings and a pair of silver Haruno crest cuff links.

He had found it: her memorabilia stash for her family. Was this it though? It sure seemed like small ,trivial items, that was for sure. He would have thought that Sakura would have kept the entire house practically to remember. Sadly, that didn't seem the case.

Well, everyone was different in dealing with grief.

Deciding that his mission was done, he quickly turned back to the hallway, switched off the light, and slipped into his room.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000Sakura arrived from her rather uneventful shopping trip forty five minutes later. Upon hearing her arrival, he opened his door and met her at the living room.

He scoffed at the sight of her. What was she doing?

"Shut up and help me idiot." She muttered before the top item on her stack of shopping bags fell off. Quickly, Sasuke sped forwards and caught it. Puzzled, he looked at Sakura.

"It's a sink stopper, so we can wash dishes?" Oh, so that's what this little contraption was.

"Hn."

"It's odd that when we are out and about you talk so much more. Now, when we are home, you are silent." She commented while un-bagging her new items.

He said nothing, only moving to help her with her task. It seemed that she had taken it back to being with the basics. Upon the items she had bought this time, she chose two clothes hampers, green and black respectively, cleaning supplies took up the majority, oven mitts, an apron, and two scented candles.

"Thanks Sas. I can handle it from here."

He looked at her, nodded, and then started to walk off.  
"Taking a shower," he threw over his shoulder. She made no reply.

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Sakura was in her room lying on her bed when it happened. On her feet in an instant, she ran out of her small room and turned directly right.

"You screamed, what's wrong?" She asked the shut door. There was no reply.

"Sas?!" She questioned the door further, still no response.

Panicking, she quickly raised her adolescent foot to the front portion of the door with full intent on kicking it in when it abruptly swung open on it's own.

There, in only a towel and a look of pain on his face, was Sas.

"…The hell?" Sasuke asked.

"You didn't answer and you screamed!" she explained while lowering her foot.

"It was nothing," he noted while trying to shove past his teammate.

"When _you_ scream Uchiha Sasuke, something has happened." She stated.

Sasuke turned to look at her. "_Nothing_ happened."

"Yes it did! I heard you in th-" She was interrupted.

"I hit my head and almost fell over, shut up!" Sasuke made to shove her out of the way quickly and slammed his bedroom door seconds later.

Sakura stood there motionless for a couple of seconds, but only for a couple.

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He heard her laughing. She wasn't being discreet about it at all, annoying girl! He threw his dirty clothes into his new hamper and grimaced. He quickly stomped over to his bedroom door and swung it open. There she was, bending over and giggling while clutching her stomach. He scowled.

She turned to face him. "Maybe you are not as amazing at being a ninja as I thought you were Sas."

He didn't even reply, only slammed the door on her..again. Trudging over to his bed he threw himself on it. Dumb girls and their superiority complex. Then it hit him.

…She thought he was amazing.

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If one happened to be a fly on the wall at that moment, you could see the air around the room get smaller as his ego grew to a horrendous size, taking it's place.

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**Slow I know, but I wanted to get them settled in and just have some fun team interaction. See you guys next week!!!!!**


	6. Bonding

**I got my first flame!!! Really, I am so excited about it. Apparently I'm a 'one dimensional writer…and that's the worst'. I thought I would be sad, but I'm not. I showed it to everyone I know, it's almost as if I'm proud of it.**

**Weird. **

**I am shocked that my story has over 60 people with me on their favorite list, and over 100 people alerting it. This is just…wow…I'm speechless. **

**AND that I have 96 reviews!? I am so gracious. Thank you **_**so**_** much. **

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It was miserable outside today. Hot and humid being his arch-nemesis, Sasuke briefly wonders why his family uses fire jutsu in the first place. He looked at the last batch of kunai he threw at the practice range, perfect.

As always.

Sasuke looked at his sweating partner to his right. Amidst their grueling target practice with kunai, it seemed that her hair was frizzing, sweat was forming on her brow, and her Konoha 'arm' band seemed to be slipping sideways. Currently, she had her arm strung back to throw another perfect—wait, scratch that—one kunai out of the trio landed a full three inches below the bulls eye. She growled in annoyance. Sensing his eyes one her, she turned to meet his passive gaze. Sasuke noticed that she had 'The Look'.

Since living with her the last two months, he had well gotten used to when things were about to turn gruesome and well, possibly deadly. Luckily, he had her facial expressions to forewarn him of the upcoming danger. Though, in all honesty, she should really work on keeping her emotions inward. That was rule number 12 or something in the handbook.

"What the hell are you looking at?" she demanded.

Sasuke cautiously looked around to see if his Sensei had arrived, though his actions were futile. Even though Kakashi shows up three to five hours late daily, Sakura and him decided early on in their partnership to train anyways until he showed up. It was only wasted time, and it was no secret that they both had goals they wanted to accomplish as quickly as possible.

"Nothing," He drawled, trying to sound disinterested. He was quite peeved that he had to exert extra effort to talk, though he had his reasons. It was not safe to draw attention to himself, and it was definitely not the time to grunt answers.

"Silly me, I thought you had something to say." With one last demoralizing glare, she turned back to her own straw practice dummy. Sasuke was glad that she chose to inflict the poor dummy torture, and not him.

Sighing relief in his head, he turned back to his own straw man. In the first couple months of sharing their new home, the pair had actually gotten along just peachy. They had, at first, stuck to their own respective rooms while they were at home, almost reluctant and embarrassed to see each other. That stage had quickly subsided though, and now the 'family room' as Sakura calls it(He himself prefers 'living' room, because that is all that was taking place inside of it.) is now where they hang out when they are home. Laundry is going surprisingly well. Every three to four days they compile the hampers and get to work as a group, punching it out in one day. Sasuke had already gotten over his fear…apprehension.. of girly undergarments ages ago. Instead of touching them when it was his turn to fold the load, he just ignored them completely, refusing to even acknowledge their existence. He found this sufficed the first time Sakura came through and he wordlessly thrust the basket full of her (ahem) items in her direction, she looked at him and took it, all the while smirking. The bathroom routines quickly took root also as well. He took a shower and all that jazz at night, while Sak did her business in the morning. Something about her hair and having to look decent made her call dibs on the A.M. Of course, she took a shower every day after training anyway. Sometimes he thought it was dumb of her to take an extra shower, but when he voiced his opinion, she just said that he didn't have girl hair and to shut up. As for food, they were usually too tired from training to come home and attempt to actually turn on the stove or something mundane like that. They picked up take out on the way home most of the time. But, if they were even too tired for that, Sasuke would grab a handy tomato from the fridge while Sakura would have..only she would have _that_ as a favorite food: Boiled Shrimp.

Weird girl.

The only good out of this whole food sharing thing was that he finally learned how to peel the blasted shrimp without taking forever and a day.

Throwing another perfect quadruplet set of kunai, he concluded that yes, things were coming along quite nicely. Flip that coin though, and you would see the potential of disaster the two had. That was how he first met 'The Face' in the first place. Or, what Sasuke like to call 'D and C'. _Duck and Cover._ Inwardly, he recalled the time he left his shoes in the middle of the living room floor, only to hear a livid Sakura who had tripped over them just moments before. Apparently, retorting that she was a kunoichi and should see these things coming was not the right thing to say. He wondered if the bruise was still there. Nah, he didn't want to look.

"Sas," said boy was being called. He turned to look at Sak, raising an eyebrow.

"Guess who decided to show up today?" She smirked.

Sasuke looked over to where his teammate was gazing coolly, only to see his sensei.

"Took long enough," he grumbled underneath his breath.

Sakura heard and she whispered, "Agreed."

Kakashi fake pouted.

"Now, now. Today I was late because I was doing you two a huge favor." That eye crinkled upwards as he tilted his head to the side.

Both students stayed silent, waiting.

"We're going on a mission," he halfheartedly tried to sound enthusiastic.

Sakura spoke up. "Sensei, if we are mowing _another_ yard I swear I'll go crazy. There's no telling how many we've done in the last _week_." She threw her hands up as if exasperated.

"Eight."

The pink haired girl turned to look at her charming teammate: She scowled and with promise of violence as she hissed out her reply.

"I _knew_ that Sasuke…"

Sasuke had never seen her this...emotional. She was using the whole name though, and that meant it was time to agree wholeheartedly with anything she says for fear of losing his life.

Sasuke nodded and looked back at his sensei who seemed to be sympathizing with him. God she had a temper.

"Well," Kakashi spoke up again, "I actually landed us a C-Rank."

Sasuke gave him a compromising look as if to say 'For real?'.

Sakura voiced just that. "Really?"

"Yup, we are going to pick up an injured shinobi in Suna. So, hop to it. Go get packed and meet back here in two hours."

The pair turned to go wordlessly.

"And Sakura?" she threw a look over her shoulder at her sensei.

"I hope you get to having a better day." She squinted at him, trying to find what his real motive behind the phrase. Just then though, Kakashi 'poofed' again.

"Come on Sak."

Dutifully, she followed her team leader.

….Now now now, don't be surprised she acknowledges him as her team leader. From day one on the bridge he had called the shots while she followed. He was strategic, cunning, and most importantly, in her opinion anyway, trusted her to carry her part in the spars with Kakashi. Said part usually wasn't some petty job either. As long as he didn't try to set her out of missions and such like some little princess, then she had no problem with following orders. She trusted him after all. In fact, he asked for her advice, taking it more times than not in their training exercises. This made her want to think that he trusted her too.

This did not mean to say that at home he ordered her to make him a sandwich and she agreed.

Uhhh, hell no.

She was no slave. She just simply knew that in his mind, he respected her skills and treated her as an equal.

She liked it just like that too.

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Two hours later, the duo was surprised to see their sensei actually waiting for them. Nodding to each other, they started their trek towards the east gate customarily quiet and silent.

Sakura loved these silences, it was just her and the two people she was most comfortable with. She could say that she was as close to being content as she ever could be. But, that would be a lie because her world would never be content until a certain raven haired brat was dead. She settled that she was as content as she could be at the moment.

Following behind her teammates, she turned the last corner of a building before being able to see the exit. This would have been what she saw, but currently, she found herself on the ground. Looking up, she saw Sasuke rigidly just standing there.

_Weird__o_.

He turned and looked at her, frowning. Wordlessly, he offered her a free hand to help her up not even looking at her. She took it, all the while looking around him to see why he was so tense in the first place. There, not five feet away, stood Hyuga Neji. Unfortunately, he was looking straight at her.

"Apparently little Sakura Princess needs help waking around these days, hm?" he visibly sneered at her. Sakura didn't even have the chance to retort before Sasuke chunked an insult in his direction.

"Hyuga, I didn't know you made a habit out of talking trash to girls who put you on the ground not so long ago." Neji, who was still having a glare-off with Sakura, refocused his relentless gaze on Sasuke.

"I was clearly not talking to you, Uchiha."  
Sakura felt her muscles tense up as she felt a fight coming on. This guy was just asking for it.

"Me and Sasuke are a team, so if you talk to me, you're effectively talking to him." Sasuke smirked at Neji as Sakura hissed her reply.

Now, if anyone had seen Kakashi in the background, they would have seen him almost visibly swell with pride. '_They've come so far.'_ He decided to watch a little more of the show as he was already invisible.

Neji scoffed. "So now you have boys fight your battles for you? Tsk, I didn't think of you as that weak."

Sakura had all she could take.

"No you asshole, I'm saying that after _I'm_ finished kicking you around, _he_ can have what's left!"

Sasuke had his hackles raised, one more thing and he was going to spring. Apparently Neji didn't see how far this was getting. "I assure you, _Sakura_, you will never have the privilege of seeing me on the ground again."

Sasuke didn't wait. "Oh, but I will," he almost sounded excited as he raced forward. Just as his face was closing in with Sasuke's fist, Kakashi miraculously appeared right in between the two.

"There is nothing more I love than a 'friendly' rivalry, hm boys?" he smiled down at the pair. Neji's eyes widened for a fraction of a second before his stoic mask reappeared. Kakashi focused his attention on the Hyuga boy. "If you will excuse us, we have a mission to be off to," Kakashi politely stated. Neji nodded, then turned and walked off as if nothing happened. Though, this was not done without one last glare at Sakura.

Sasuke glanced at her. Oh god, it was 'D and C' again.

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The rest of the trip out of the city was rather uneventful. It did take some time to calm the heart rates of the two adolescents down; they had some amazing target practice at pigeons to take their frustration out on. As good day's travel to Suna was spent, Kakashi ordered camp to be made. Sasuke set up the fire in a small clearing while Sakura set up the tent right beside him. Kakashi was out and about scouting, though they both knew he was just re-rereading his favorite porn scene. Unfolding his and her bedrolls, she sat down on her's respectively and folded her knees to her chest. A few moments later Sasuke huffed in and fell down prone on his bed roll a few feet over. He willed himself not to drop dead right there. It was silent for a few seconds, then he heard a quiet, "Sas?"

He didn't even use enough effort to turn his head, "Yeah?"

"The anniversary is next week." It was a statement.

Sasuke froze. oh.

_That_anniversary.

Finally turning to look at her, he picked himself up and sat Indian style.

"Yeah, it is." He wasn't sure where she was going with this. 'Tread carefully,' he reminded himself, 'they had never even mentioned the massacre before.'

She continued on. "Well, I didn't' know what you did for it. I usually go put flowers on the graves."

Hn, so she was going there after all.

"I put flowers too," he agreed

She nodded slowly. "I was wondering if, maybe, you wanted to go and do it together this year."

Sasuke just looked at her, not responding just yet. He had always grieved in solitude. What would it feel like, having another person with him? And let's not forget that this wasn't just _any_ person, this was the girl that was orphaned because of _his_ brother. He didn't think that her going with him to the graves would feel awkward. No, they were too close now for that.

He would feel…ashamed.

All of this was his family's fault, and she was just an innocent bystander.

He looked at her straight in the eyes, "Sakura, I'm sorry."

She looked at him with confusion. Was that a no then?

"Sasuke, I—"

"Sakura, all of this is my family's fault. I'm..I'm just sorry, okay?"

The look on her face softened a bit, finally knowing what he was talking about.

"You can't blame yourself Sas. You were so young. _We_ were so young. "

Sasuke looked at her with a touch of anger.

" He was an _ANBU_ at age _twelve_Sakura! I should have been more powerful; instead I just goofed off when I was young."

"Don't you _ever_ compare yourself to him ever, Sasuke." She was slowly shaking her head at him now.

"Hn." Apparently he had used all the words that he wished to for the day.

"You didn't answer my question. Do you want to go together, as a team…"

He laid back down before answering.

"Yes, I do."

He heard her moving and ten felt a small squeeze on his shoulder. The small pressure was gone even before he registered what she had done.  
"It's nice not to be alone, isn't it Sas?"

"Aa," he replied, so quiet that Sakura almost thought she imagined his agreement.

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Hatake Kakashi sat outside Team 7's tent, content in his decision that yes, this team, _his_ team, would bust the chuunin exams wide open.

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**Don't forget to tell me what you want to see happen or ask me a question. I answer them all!**


	7. Ready,Set,GOOOO

**So I really should be studying. Oh well. :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD**

**1)I stole the term "Uchiharu" from a fic I read awhile back. If someone knows the name, please tell me. **

**2)This is just the start of something huge. The Chunnin Exams!**

_**3)There is a question at the bottom of this chappie. If you want to have any influence on where this story is headed, please answer in the reviews!**_

She felt the sweat slide down her lower back and grimaced. It was definitely a scorcher today, and Sakura Haruno wasn't exactly cold natured. Looking away from the sun that was fixing to go behind a cloud, thank Kami, she just caught a glimpse of the Konoha entrance gates over the tree line. Her heart jumped in excitement, and she immediate reprimanded herself for such a blatant physical display of emotion. Sasuke had mentioned more than once that she needed to curb her impulses if she wanted to become a better kunoichi. She knew he was right, but she still felt a little resentment towards him because she couldn't find anything to correct about him. She sighed as she absentmindedly reached up to touch her Konoha 'arm' band that was actually now on her head. During the mission, she was continually checking on the sick chunnin Sasuke and herself had the pleasure of dragging on a makeshift sleigh. There were other methods to make this trip easier of course, but Sensei had jumped at the chance for more physical training. Looking at the boy Sasuke was dragging not so lightly, the teenage chunnin seemed to be sleeping. Leaning down to check his fever, she was relieved when her hair didn't fall into her eyes. She had only thought of this ingenious Konoha hair ribbon this morning, and was still mentally ecstatic about the lack of hair trying to smother it's owner. The pinkette heard her partner grunt to her left. It was the famous, "Sakura" signal.

"Yes?" She decided that just this once she would let him get away with not speaking.

"Two miles left. I call first shower."

Sakura actually turned to crane her neck at her partner.

"Sas, you're not supposed to be attached to such frivolous things."

He only glared for a nano-second before he smirked.

"You're the one who takes two showers a day for your hair."

She scoffed.

"Sasuke, other than the fact that kunoichi are hired to look beautiful and seduce men only to kill them in bed, my hair is the only thing I care for besides our partnership."

She looked down for a moment in thought and then snapped her eyes to his.

"Plus, haven't I told you before that you don't have girl hair? You better shush Uchiha." She gave him a haughty wiggle of her head and then continued on her walk.

Something about the little rant troubled Sasuke, and it wasn't the confession that their partnership meant something to her. After all, he felt the same way. But he didn't feel so nonchalant about her using her body for missions. He actually felt resentment towards her for even thinking so 'whatever' about it. The Sakura he knew would never resign herself to such mediocre missions. Maybe she didn't know that only female ninjas that didn't perform highly got sent on to use their body. That had to be it. But he knew that she, they, would be a team all the way up until ANBU. It was only fact in the book of Uchiha Sasuke that Sakura would be his best friend and partner always.

"Sas," he looked at the girl trying to get his attention.

"I'm going to have to run by the weapons store when we get home, I need a pair of gloves."

Sasuke nodded.

Over the span of their two week mission, Sasuke and Sakura had kept their rigorous training program. In one taijutsu spar, Sakura had noticed something life altering; Her physical strength was rapidly growing. Out of frustration, she had punched a rock only to have it spout cracks and a small indention was formed. It wasn't that strong yet, but for a twelve year old girl it was a deadly façade. Kakashi immediately swooped in and gave her a new training schedule while muttering something about what Sasuke thought was a 'tsunami'. In a couple years, she would probably be able to bring down a building with her little pinky finger.

She wasn't the only one to start something new though. Kakashi had started him on a new jutsu as well. Even though Sasuke had only seen the chidori fully whenever sensei performed it, he knew for a fact that he would master it as well. Not only that, but he could count dozens of ways to incorporate it into his own techniques.

Sasuke smirked inwardly at the memory of his partner and him breathing heavily while staring at their teacher. Though he seemed to be breathing just fine, there was no fornicating book in sight. They were improving, fast.

"Well, one day you two will be a team only spoken of in legend."

The pair smirked at the words coming from Kakashi.

"But, as of now you are still incredibly weak. Before we leave, five more laps. Dismissed."  
It was a proven fact that Hatake Kakashi could not give a compliment without insulting you right after.

* * *

All was good in the life of the genin pair, or at least Sasuke thought it was. They had been back for three days now, finally ridden of that ugly chunnin that always was trying to get Sak's attention, and training on their own grounds again. He was rather content, except for what was about to happen today. Since they had missed the anniversary, Sakura wend to get flowers this morning while it was Sasuke's turn to do the dishes. Sasuke knew he should be more…morbid about going to put flowers on his family's head stones. In reality, he was sure he would when the time came, but right now he was relieved that he didn't have to go by himself.

But you would have to pull his teeth out before he admitted it.

Having his whole family yell at him every year to avenge them from their grave was incredibly daunting and sickening. He stopped thinking about it. This year was different. He was with the only person on the same page as him, so everything was going to be fine.

He felt her chakra before she yelled at him.

"Sas! Let's go!" Shoving his dish towel on the ugly greenish counter, he slipped on his shoes and headed outside.

There, his partner was waiting on him just beyond the steps. In her hands though, were bright yellow flowers.

"I thought I said white flowers."  
"Gah Sas, just because all of our family has moved on doesn't mean we have to treat them like that. These are called buttercups. They are foreign, expensive, but I thought our own families would enjoy a little color this year."

Of course, she spoke with reason that made blatant sense. He grabbed two bouquets of flowers leaving her with her own two and started off. As she caught up with him, she spoke again.

"The rest of the clan is getting white day lilies. I told them to deliver them to the headstones tomorrow. I thought our parents deserve a little something special, ne?" She held up her bouquets for emphasis.

Sasuke suddenly felt even more grateful than usual for his friendship. Since Sakura's parents were killed dishonorably by his..

That man, Itachi.

They had been buried near the score of Uchihas in a rather expensive grave. Sasuke always bought white flowers for his clan, while Sakura always left colorful arrangements. Now that he thought about it, his parents did deserve a little color. Well, his mom did at least.

"Do you want to go to each grave together or split up once we get there?"

"Aa."

"Okay, I'll stay with you."

It was no secret that she understood him better than anyone else. Even more, it seemed she could pick him apart no matter his facial expressions or the words he used. Sometimes, it was downright scary.

* * *

They went to her parents first. She placed the pretty yellow floral arrangement on top of each grave respectively and then spoke.

"Hey mom, dad. I've been getting stronger for you. I'll come see you more often this year, I promise. I love you..miss you.. so much."

Sakura felt the tear roll down her face, but she also felt pressure on top of her shoulder. Looking at her partner's hand which was obviously there for comfort, she changed her focus on to his face. He had his head bowed in respect, eyes tightly shut.

Best friend.

Well, best friend didn't even seem to come close to what they really were. Sometimes she thought that even though she lost her parents, the bond she had with Sas was just enough. He was her only important person now.

Their bond was irreversible.

Sakura felt a wall come down and she felt like saying something.

Blame it on the graveyard, but she always felt more open here.

"Sas, I know I need to work on my emotions, and I'm getting better, but what I am about to say is just stating the obvious anyway. You're….well, you are my best friend. I will always be here for you."

Sasuke kept his head bowed and his eyes closed. He sighed before he spoke.

"Sakura, I protect people that are important to me. You'll always be protected."

It was just like Sasuke to admit something by not outright admitting it. Of course he would never just say "Sakura, you are important to me." Sakura smiled inwardly. She knew that he would never come close to saying anything like this again. It was practically a one time trial. Either way she felt relieved that their bond was growing.

* * *

Sasuke's grave visiting was a little different. He went to each of the clan members first, saving his father and mother last. Bowing his head to every headstone, he felt Sakura do the same standing a little to the left. It did lessen the screams in his mind of revenge somewhat to have her there.

Fifteen minutes later the two avengers stood in front of the head of the Uchiha clan. It started as just a funny feeling, but he gradually felt it for what it was.

Hatred.

Anger and resentment for his brother came back in tidal waves that knocked his senses and judgement to the very core.

Had it really been that long since he felt this? A year ago, this is what he felt all the time. Gradually it had lessened, and Sasuke could only think of the catalyst that had started the chain reaction.

It was standing right next to him. Sak.

The anger and hate kept pouring over him and the nauseous feeling in the pit of his stomach almost brought him to his knees. Any second now and he would lose control of his body and start shaking.

Revenge.

Revenge is the only thing that matters.

He was an avenger.

Only he was worthy of being the last Uchiha on Earth.

Lost in his thoughts, he almost didn't catch his teammate kneeling.

She was talking.

"..great, and he is strong. You would be so proud of him. I hope you can see him doing all of this for you."

Pause.

With an almost audible snap, he felt his conscious start turning again. His mind returned.

Sak was here. His partner.

"Sas, do you want to say anything?"

Sasuke kept his head down, looking at his mother's name engraved in extravagant cursive on granite.

"This is all for you." His voice sounded raspy.

Sakura could see that it was only aimed for one person.

'Mamma's boy' floated in some dark recess of her mind that wasn't aware of how morbid this moment was. Returning the favor, she placed a hand gingerly on his shoulder and watched as he saw things behind his eyes that she would never witness.

For a moment, they weren't ninja, avengers, or anything at all. They were twelve year olds, bonded by fate and tragedy mourning for their loved ones.

Sas and Sak trained for the rest of the day in silence.

* * *

A week later they stood in front of a very happy sensei. The last time she had seen him so happy was before the most grueling practice she had ever had. She couldn't help but feel a little nervous. Then, she saw the paper forms clenched in his hand.

"Sensei, what's going on?"

The jonin leered his neck almost giddy like towards his female student.

"Well, remember the day that I said you were a two man team from then on?"

The pair nodded.

"I withheld information."

It took emotional training that Sakura had endured everyday for the past month not to glare. She was getting better at this 'eyes being to windows to the soul' stuff.

"If you two could not pass certain requirements, which means made me feel as if you two couldn't make it, then you would have been split up and put with genin teams a year or two older than you that lost a member in the exams. It is safe to say you two could definitely of handled the age gap if push came to shove."

Sakura spoke up for both of them.

"Exams?"

"Ah, yes. The Chunnin Exams. It's how you graduate from being a genin. They are particularly challenging, so a two man cell is a definite gamble. But, I am proud to say you are definitely qualified and are in no danger of being split. ….That means stop glaring at your Sensei, Sasuke."

Sasuke held his ground, and his glare.

Sakura sighed and tried to push forward. "So, that means that those two forms are for me and Sas, right?"

"Always the clever one Sakura. Yes, these forms are to enter you in the exams, if you so choose."  
Sasuke spoke up.

"Of course we are ready."

Kakashi kept talking. "Fill them out and meet at this place tomorrow."

He pointed to a certain part of the slightly wrinkled forms and then thrust them in Sakura's direction.

"I see you are still wearing your 'arm' band on your head as a hair band now."

Sakura giggled.

"Yeah, it helps me keep my hair out of my eyes when I'm pummeling Sas." She shot a cheeky grin to the scoffing Uchiha.

Kakashi's eye turned crescent and he ruffled her hair.

It was almost nice to be acting like a kid, Sakura absently thought as she playfully smacked his hand, instead of being trained to kill.

"Go home and get some rest, both of you. These exams are not to be taken lightly."

It was also proven that Kakashi never gave idle comments.

* * *

Bright and early the next morning, the duo headed out to the exams without a clue what would happen. The first exam being held in the academy, they knew exactly where to head. Walking towards the door that the exam was held in, they noticed a group of genin teams crowding outside the door. The closer they got, the more they noticed that the crowd was unhappy. Apparently, two chunnin snot head boys were blocking the entrance.

Sakura was aching to sigh, but she kept her mask of indifference firmly in place. Sasuke, to her left, easily did the same.

She heard a boy's voice ring up over the crowd.

"You _have_ to let us in that room!"

Sakura didn't hear the response, but whatever it was shut the boy up. He looked like a whimpered dog. It was when they were almost to the crowd when Sas whispered in her ear.

"Remember, don't make too many enemies Sak."

This time she couldn't hold back the scoff. If he didn't want enemies, then he should talk too. Usually, since they thought practically the same way, she would be the vocal chords for both parties. She gave him a look of indifference to show that she was back in control and but smirked right before she turned forwards again.

He sure was talky this morning with tidbits of knowledge. Like before they left the house he told her to pack extra rubber bands for her hair. Now really, how many teammates said stuff like that.

They marched towards the center of the crowd until they got in front of the door. She heard Sasuke sigh. It was obviously a signal to her that he saw the genjutsu too.

Good, she didn't want to pull something on him by surprise. She almost felt bad for not thinking he would see it.

Looking at the punk who blocked her 'door', she stepped right up beside him.

"Sir, and I only say sir because I know you're really older than you look, could you please move and take off the genjutsu? I have a classroom to get to up those stairs."

The boy who hadn't even noticed her now gave her his full attention, just like every other person in the crowd. He glanced at Sasuke who was directly behind her.

"So you are the girl in the dynamic Uchiharu duo, eh? I didn't think you two would make it honestly. You guys are strong, aren't you?"

The pair placed their 'indifference face' on again and started forwards, past the boy.

Neither of them said it, but being called the Uchiharu duo didn't sound bad at all.

As Sasuke passed the now much older man walking through the door, he heard him grumble about 'no fun' and 'emotionless brats.'

Sasuke let himself smirk.

No one could see him anyway.

After they were in the hallway by themselves, Sakura turned towards him.

"See? I can talk to someone without making enemies."

"Tell that to Hyuga, the only other genin we've met."

She looked up as if she was pondering something, obviously being fake.

"Does he even count? He's a pansy boy."

"Sak…He definitely counts. He might be here so watch your back because I'm not going to babysit you."

Sakura didn't miss a beat.

"Don't lie. You'll always have my back."

Her declaration was met with silence. Obviously his answer was 'I know.'

She shook her head and started towards the real door.

" You ready for this?"

"Let's go."

* * *

Sasuke wondered if it was a custom of other countries to stare at someone for ridiculously amounts of time if someone walked through a door.

Really.

For serious.

Sakura elbowed him gently and started to a random wall on which they both leaned. They were taught from the best at this game that amazing ninja never look amazing.

Never, ever draw attention to yourself. Kakashi's voice in Sasuke's head was always talking to him these days.

A boy with purple face paint started talking to Sak, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"Little girl, I think you lost a member."

He listened as she responded curt and to the point.

"We are a team. Only two."

The boy was about to respond when his own teammate interrupted him.

"Don't talk to the competition, idiot."

Apparently the boy knew it wasn't worth it to get killed by his own teammate and turned back around. Sasuke felt his mind drift again for a couple of seconds before he felt the room go quite. Sakura was suddenly tense.

Turning to look at her, there was a boy not two feet in front of her with red hair. He was obviously dangerous.

"Names." It wasn't even a question.

Sasuke was immediately in wedged in between his teammate and this new found danger.

He answered the order. "Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura."

He switched his focus between the two and then seemingly lost interest.

"Sabaku no Garra."

Sasuke strained to hear it as he walked away.

But he for sure heard his teammate whisper harshly in his ear.

"Sas, you are going to have to stop stepping in front of me in a little danger. I'm a big girl you know. I can hold my own to you in spars."

She sounded a little agitated.

Sasuke turned to make eye contact with her as he walked back to his wall, all the while staying silent.

He knew that she already knew his answer.

'I protect people important to me. I'll protect you always.'

He felt his teammate almost sigh and then catch herself. He was amazed that he knew what she was probably thinking at this moment. He would bet his life inheritance that she was probably trying to stay positive and was thinking that 'at least I have a teammate that cares.'

Yeah, that was it.

No doubt.

And a good thing she did too.

No one was worthy of the job except him, obviously.

**A/N IMPORTANT!  
Okay, so they are _twelve_. I'm not about to incorporate some weird little kid love story into this. I'm thinking that after the exams I am going to do a **_**time skip**_**(3-4 years?) so we can get some ****romance, since you guys have been so patiently waiting****. I might even do individual chapters for each year, so you guys will know what's going on and I don't just jump completely. **

**Ya know?**

_**PLEASE**_** TELL ME WHAT YOU GUYS WANT TO DO!**

_**That, or I'm not giving you cookies. So yeah. **_


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